Hi,I have been offered a Barcelona chair that I have been told is at least ten years old but I have not seen it in person, I have three questions to ask you experts on weather it could be right.
The undeside of the seat cushions have the word Knoll printed.The front bar is bolted to the side pieces and the seat straps are attatched with rivets.Can genuine examples
have these features?There is also an area of piping on the front edge of each seat cushion that has rubbed right through,is this a common problem?
Thanks
Barcelona chairs with bolts
The original Barcelona Chair design was bolted; they have only been made with seamless stainless-steel frames since the 1950s. I don't know when Knoll started making them, but personally I think any of the seamless chairs are inauthentic. So, one company claims to own the design and is producing them in a manufacturing process that ignores the ideals of modernism. The idea that anything not produced by this company is a fake makes me giggle ^_^
Except
Except that when Knoll began making the chairs in the 1940s (46 I think) it was under the direction of Mies himself (a personal friend and mentor of Florence Knoll) who had originally intended the frame to be seamless, but was technologically unable to do that in the 20s.
So call me particular, but if the original designer himself oversees a redesign of his own furniture by the one company to which he grants license for sole production...I don't think it gets any more authentic than that. But again, maybe I'm being particular.
And on a side note, I do believe Knoll uses rivets to hold their straps onto the chairs.
~
Luc,
My Knoll barcelona chair's(circa 1975ish) straps are attached to the frame using a "hex shaped" flat head screw. I added a couple of Knoll barcelona ottomans a few years later (same vintage... ebay purchase) and noticed that the flat head screws edged were round instead of hex , but otherwise identical. Straps/attachment points/cushions/frames/and cushions remain the same on all pieces. Knoll must have slightly changed the screws during production? How are the current Knoll model's straps attached? Hex or round? or ?
All the best!
Yes, well
Oh alright; I suppose you have a point on the Barcelona Chair in particular, for which Mies was intentionally going aristocratic, straying from the core modernist philosophy of design for the simplest possible construction which was his more usual mode. And I certainly don't mean to take anything away from Knoll, who are an intelligent firm. I kind of love the chair as it's usually realised, but I think my point is that I'd also love to see an older, simpler model reborn, bolts and all.
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